List Price $700.80Your Price $630.72

F5 Mandolin Kit

About This Item

Make a fine F-style mandolin and save hours of work! We create this kit in our own shop under the guidance of Don MacRostie, creator of renowned "Red Diamond" mandolins.

We use all top-quality woods and workmanship to make every kit a potential heirloom. There's no plywood in this kit: curly maple is used for the sides and back, with an arched European spruce top.

Learn to build from a pro!
The assembly steps are presented in our DVD How to Build a Carved-Top Mandolin, which we recommend to everyone considering building our mandolin kit. SAVE when you buy the kit and DVD together!

The most difficult work is already done.
The arched back and top are carved, and the sides are bent. The tail block and neck block are glued in place. The neck joint is dovetailed for correct alignment, and the neck is shaped and ready for sanding. Tuner holes are accurately drilled into the shaped peghead. The truss rod slot is cut to fit the truss rod provided. The fret slots have been cut into the fingerboard.

Everything's ready for hand-building, and very few tools are needed. (A Dremel tool is the only power tool you'll need to construct your mandolin.) The arched top and back are ready for sanding and assembly, or you can tap-tune the fine European spruce top until it's just right.

You get top-quality pieces made to fit:

Dovetailed curly maple neck

Peghead veneer

29-slot ebony fingerboard

Assembled curly maple rim with dovetailed neck block

Carved European spruce top and curly maple back

Tone bars

Kerfed linings

The kit also includes white and black bindings, truss rod, string nut, fretwire, dot inlays and endpin — all the parts you need to get started.

When you've finished building the kit, choose the tuners, bridge and tailpiece that's right for your instrument. (Sold separately.)

Easy finishing optionsColorTone Aerosol Guitar Lacquer is an economical way for the beginner to apply a finish without elaborate setup or equipment. Only a few cans are needed to completely finish your mandolin.

Will this video play on your equipment?
These DVDs are not "region-specific," and are intended for worldwide use.

Customer Reviews

Tough but rewarding

It took me a year in total to complete this kit during 4 years with interval. I'm satisfied with wood quality and accuracy. Although it needs basic skill and experience but patience and careful works will be rewarded. I will enjoy playing and watching. Thanks for nice kit.

F5 to F4 kit

A customer wanted an F4-style mandolin to 'match' his 1921 GIBSON mandola. Some discussion lead to the purchase of the F5 kit as a starting point. I made a shorter F4 neck to suit. The quality of woods in the kit was astonishing, and my customer is as happy with the result as I am. Well done STEWMAC.

Be very careful

This mandolin kit is high quality materials. In my opinion, this kit is above the skills of the average beginner. I had built 2 guitars which were usable but not beautiful. This mandolin kit was all the challenge I wanted plus some. I found the binding very difficult, and the neck joint. Just know to proceed very slowly and think through each step. My mandolin ended up with some faults. The top and back thickness was too great because I didn't carve enough material. The binding job was ugly. The action was very high which was repairable. Good luck and take lots of time.

First class operation

I was very impressed with the speed I received my kit in only a matter of days ! I am also very happy I took the suggestion given out from you guys to add Dan MacRostie's dvd to the kit ! Its been invaluable

A little more info on voicing the instrument would have been really helpful but all in all I'll be coming back for more.

Thanks to everyone involved !

Another Killer Bluegrass Axe

Got a mandolin from this kit made in 2003 by luthier Doug O in Cleveland. Once again when done right it is right there with tone and volume of much more pricey pieces. This one has the signature Gibson tone IDK how he did it.